Fax as printer in cups

[James Freer]

On 3 January 2011 16:03, Tommy Trussell <tommy.trussell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 6:38 PM, Mike McMullin <mmcmullin at cogeco.ca> wrote:
>>
>>  Is it possible to configure a fax modem as a printer in CUPS, shunt jobs to
>> it and have it launch the appropriate fax user interface?
>>
>>  Failing that, where's the docs on setting up a fax/server in 10.04 desktop?
>
> On this netbook running  Ubuntu 10.10, I went to the System --> Help
> and Support menu and searched for "fax." The first item indicated the
> package is called efax-gtk, which should do what you want, as long as
> you have a supported fax modem. It may take some work to get the setup
> working as you expect, though.
>
> A few weeks ago I needed to receive a fax, so I created a new phone
> line with my VOIP provider and connected an older Macintosh laptop. I
> was surprised it did exactly what I needed, including forwarding the
> received documents via email. The old Mac is new enough to be using
> CUPS behind the scenes, and of course its own internal modem was
> completely supported.
>
> YMMV :-)
>
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I've used efax-gtk for several years now and not had any problems -
although you do have to convert to pdf first. However, i do find it
best to use efax for receiving (you can use any one of a number of
such services - free!).

I did try and configure a winmodem which was recognised in linux but
quite frankly it's not worth the time. Much better to just buy a
serial hardware modem which i found worked immediately and cost little
more than £5 - new on ebay (i bought two to be on the safe side!).

I find fax very useful and use it a lot despite some folk claiming
it's old technology. Fax is secure and email is not - and you know
it's always received. Most of the time folk email me back so i don't
receive many.

james